As just announced last month, GT Academy champion Lucas Ordoñez has been selected to drive the unique and radical Highcroft Racing Nissan DeltaWing prototype car at the prestigious Petit Le Mans endurance race, taking place this Friday and Saturday at Road Atlanta.
After rebuilding the car from this violent accident during a Wednesday practice session, the team is once again ready to go in what appears to be a very competitive car around the circuit.
Their stated goal, however, is to simply complete the 10-hour/1,000-mile race.
Schedule
- Qualifying: Friday, October 19, 2012, 2pm-3:15pm
- Race: Saturday, October 20, 2012, 11:30am
Live Streams and Broadcasts
- United States: Live on ESPN3, rebroadcast Sunday, October 21 at 1:00pm on ABC.
- Europe: Motors TV
- Live Timing & Scoring Data
- Radio Le Mans Internet Stream
You can also follow the race with the GTPlanet community in our live Le Mans forum discussion thread, which will be active throughout the weekend.
Also stay tuned to GTPlanet’s Twitter feed, where I’ll be personally sharing my pictures and impressions from the track throughout the weekend.
Good luck to Lucas and the Highcroft Nissan racing team!
See more articles on DeltaWing, Lucas Ordonez, and Nissan.
i wish this car came to GT5 but knowing it wont its cool but hey give it to BATMAN who ever he may be
Damnit, I missed it……….
Finished 6th. Lucas and Gunnar were really nice to me and they drive great. Shawn Johnston was amazing too. Finished first in both his GT3 races and did a fantastic job in the Hertz GT2.
It’s a Nissan….yup, it’s probably coming to GT5. How surprising….we already have enough Maseratis and Volvos and Mercedes, but we don’t have enough Nissans!
It’s an AAR, not a Nissan. the only reason it has Nissan sponsorship is because they provided the engine for it.
Nissan didn’t even make the engine for the car. The engine is the same engine as the Chevrolet Cruz World Touring Car. Nissan just paid to slap their badges on it. They compare it to the Nissan Juke engine, and it is the same size, but Nissan never actually developed the DeltaWing engine. “That’s ridiculous, why would they pay for an engine that’s essentially the same as the Juke engine?” because the Juke engine isn’t race tested or developed to endure the strain that a race engine does, that’s why they bought the proven Chevy engine. It’s a document fact. Another fun fact is that the tub for the car is the tub from the failed Aston Martin AMR-One. AAR bought it from Aston Martin, fabricated the rest of the car themselves, and then Nissan slapped badges on the engine and the car. It’s just a marketing exercise on Nissan’s part.
I don’t think we will see the delta wing in gt5 why? Because it might race full time in ALMS which has a contract with who? Forza. So it’s sad that Nissan have there name on the car and have a contract with PD but can’t get it in gt. Bad move Nissan.
Then again it may never see Forza because of it’s Nissan tie.
What it would be wise for PD to do is go and get a contract with Grand-Am, which is sanctioned by NASCAR so there’s our start. That way when ALMS and Grand-Am merge under Grand-Am’s roof in 2014 PD was the rights to put both series cars in Gran Turismo and leave Forza with nothing.
Wow, i was watching the race during the Safety Car and i couldn´t see the DeltaWing and was like “oh no…not again”…but it is still in the race. It was running in 7th position. Not sure now.
NOT SAFE! I’ve been saying it, that thing has no business racing with these cars. If you want to run it then make a spec league for it that and go around with the ALMS schedule, but don’t pit it on the same track as these Le Mans cars. That was a scary crash, as soon as they switched to the in car I was going “OH MY GOD!” because the drivers heads was driving the dang ground. He was literally eating dirt! The bulk of the mass being in the rear of the car and the nose being as narrow as it is, when that car is hit in the rear and it gets abit of the ground all the weight wants to shift to the opposite section of the car. In this case it is the left rear wanting to shift onto the right front. However, the nose is so narrow that there is no right front to transfer the impact onto and it goes over. It will happen every time one of these Le Mans cars hits it there because they, and especially the GT cars, have so much more weight then the DeltaWing. Also the obvious visibility issue. Look at when that thing gets up next to the Porsche. The second it steps into its blind spot it becomes invisible. The tip of the black roll hoops barely show above the edge of the bottom of the window. That’s not safe, it can’t be seen. Also watch the onboard of the DeltaWing, when he drives next to the Porsche his head is pretty much level with the bottom if the wheel arch / top oh the tire and I don’t find that safe either. Guys I’m not even saying anything about the car or whatever (even though it isn’t a Nissan), I’m saying it doesn’t belong with Le Mans cars because it isn’t safe. Somebody will get hurt bad and unfortunately that is probably what it will tale to make the DeltaWing a spec league.
Not sure if ur trolling, but all open wheel cars are designed with an area that when the vehicle is flipped over the drivers head does not touch the ground at all. Its all part of safety and the car would not of been at Le Mans if it did.
Yes but the difference here is that the cockpit is not centered and the driver is sitting on the flat right side of the car were there isn’t any structure on the side of the car to support it. I was watching the coverage of the race yesterday, they said the driver’s helmet was cracked after that wreck, so that alone says that the roll hoops don’t quite function like other cars.
The ALMS made the worst decision moving to ESPN. Who wants to watch a race online? They don’t give enough coverage. I hate those 1.5 hour race recap…so pointless. They definitely lost me as a viewer.
It’s too bad ALMS and the Rolex Series are combining. The Rolex Series was simple and fun to watch. 2 classes. How many does the ALMS have? 5? That’s ridiculous. They should’ve stuck with the European format (P1, P2, GT1, GT2). But it is what it is and is what it isn’t.
LOL You know you’ll still be watching Sports Center in the morning to see what you missed last night.
The worst part is I’ve never seen any SportsCenter coverage of the ALMS ryzno
You can see it for free here…(hopefully You can see my comment with the link…)
[url]http://www.alms.com/camera/television-broadcast[/url]
They announced that the series will be on SPEED next year so calm down.
Needs training wheels up front to prevent it from tilting over, a strobe light and paint it day-glo yellow, orange and green so other cars see it instead Batman Black…oh yeah, one of those florescent flags parents put on their kids bikes so cars see them in the street.
The biggest problem is the the DeltaWing is so dang low. The second it steps into the Porsche’s blind spot it was over. Look when he gets next to the Prosche, the highest point on the DeltaWing is barely peaking above the bottom of the Porsche’s window.
This is why Porsche isn’t in GT5…..it’s because they hate Nissan!! LOL!!
No, Porsche isn’t in GT5 because EA holds the exclusive rights to digital Porsches and won’t sell a sub-license to PD.
I was just joking
I reckon PD can’t afford to get the Porsche into GT because Kaz spends most of his money towards GT Academy. I mean GT Academy is a cool idea but real-life motor racing costs too much money :(
Turn 10 has a Porsche license too.
^ Sub-license. EA refused to allow this license at FM4’s release (I’m going to assume because they were rabidly trying to advertise toe 2012 911).
@sangdude82:
I don’t think it’s GT Academy, I think it’s EA’s unreasonably high asking price. I’m sure PD could afford it, but then wouldn’t have money for other resources.
I want sum preium RUFs to male up for it. The Porsche 911 is the most successful GT race car of all time, cant have a GT race car without it :)
GT racing game*
maybe we ll see DTM 2012 cars on GT6…….
Cool car! Would love to drive it
They should have a roll bar above their head for safety.
Really hope these guys finish :)
At first glance I thought the whole picture was shrunk. Lol.
The Nissan DeltaWing looks like something a boy scout created for their Pine Car Derby races.
Haha, very true
I asked all the drivers I met today if they would ever want to drive it; they all said no. That crash on Wednesday was pretty bad.
Batman should sue these guys.
They should put some training wheels up front to help it from not rolling too easily.
Looking at the video of the crash made me wonder whether the head area is sufficiently protected. This same impact does not appear like it would have rolled a vehicle on four wheels so easily. I’m not knocking the concept. I’m just saying the canopy looks like it needs to be better protected for a car as seemingly unstable as this.
…by four wheels, I mean 4 wheels on a wider axle.
watch out for porsches!
I love the Delta Wing, please Kaz. Can we have this for GT5, (or GT6).
Number 0? Is this the Angelus from Ridge Racer, except a fallen angel?
#0 is because it is unclassified
I bet that this will be knocked out AGAIN ! -.-
Just wait for night. When that thing pulls up next to a GT car and the tiny black bit that pokes above the window blends into the darkness we will have problems.
Would be awesome to have that car in the game.
I’m going, it will be the 4th time I’ve gone!! Can’t wait to get up close the the Delta Wing. But it’s a shame the Toyota and Audi Prototypes aren’t going because I really wanted to see those.
i know right?? i got into the ILMC (FIA WEC now) last year the weekend of the Road Atlanta race… I have been raging ever since because i never knew about it…
Vorsprung Durk Technik
Good luck Lucas!
You have one?
Good thing they rebuilt it in time
Very cool, this would have made Indy car unique haha.
Yeah, I like to see the Delta Wing to complete the race as well. Good luck guys.